Why Washington Accepts Mass Unemployment

The Fed is more worried about inflation than mass unemployment. Maybe the guaranteed basic income and/or community centers are the antidotes to elite failures and market failures. The Washington Consensus (privatization, deregulation and liberalization of markets) like infinite growth is more the cause of economic malaise than its solution.

"Good news! The economy added 163,000 jobs last month, just a bit over the level required to keep up with population growth. A return to a free fall now seems less likely. On the other hand, there is the small footnote that the return to full employment is nowhere in sight. The recovery looks safe for those of us who are not already screwed. That, sadly, has come to be the primary focus of our economic policy.

In the years since the collapse of 2008, the existence of mass unemployment has stopped being something the economic powers that be even pretend to regard as a crisis. To those directly impacted, the economic crisis is an emergency, a life-altering disaster the damage from which will endure for years. But most of those in a position to address it simply have not seen it in such terms. History will record that the economic elite has viewed the economic crisis from a perspective of detached complacency..."